Minutes

Thursday October 16, 2021 � Nova Chemicals Moore Site, Admin Building, Mooretown

Present: Lynn Anderson, Joanne Brown, Martin Bruce, Heather Cooper, Carolyn Harris, Tom Hughes, Brenda Lorenz, Janet Maaten, Tara McIntosh, Liz McLachlan, Marg Ryan, Bill Sisler

Regrets: Arnold Anderson, Warren Burton, Peter St. George, Doug Woodrow,

Nova Chemicals Site Presentation Martin Bruce advised the assembly of his departure in the near future as he heads off to Pittsburgh to lead the IT Division. We wish him all the best in his endeavours.

Nova Mooretown site was built in 1977 as a Union Carbide plant and was purchased by Nova in 1987. Two processes take place at this plant: High Density (HD) Gas phase fluidization reactor (Unipol design) and High Pressure LDPE. Hopper cars and boxes are utilized for on-site storage. Martin noted that residential encroachment on the plants is evident at the Corunna and Mooretown sites.

The petrochemicals and plastics processes were discussed briefly. SCLAIR (St. Clair River Site) technology was originally purchased from Dupont and is now owned by Nova Chemicals and is the solution phase polymerization of Ethylene for production of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high denisity polyethylene (HDPE). This process is licensed worldwide. LLDPE is primarily used for shrink film, industrial bags, squeeze bottles, tarps, dry food packaging, container tubs/lids, etc. All products are created with virgin materials vs. recycled materials.

Martin denoted Nova�s commitment to be a leader with respect to Responsible Care. He reviewed the people involved in Nova�s Responsible Care Council, which include several sub-councils such as the Regional Councils.

Security Vulnerability Assessments:
- Sites are ranked according to risks and attractiveness.
-This has been put into place as a direct result of 9/11/2001.

Includes: Five step review: - Facility characterization -Threat assessment -Vulnerability analysis -Identify counter measures (deter, detect, delay) -Resolution management - Implementation

Third Party Verification -utilizing the OPP or RCMP Security is now in place to guard against attacks by a terrorism group, individual/disgruntled employee or small group of people.

Approval of Minutes Agreement that the minutes be approved as printed. Moved by Liz McLachlan, Seconded by Marg Ryan.
Passed.

Ethyl Responsible Care Reverification In Doug�s absence it was noted that Tom Hughes has volunteered to be on the reverification team, however Tom must be nominated by the committee. Motion passed to nominate Tom for participation in Ethyl�s Responsible Care Reverification. Moved by Marg Ryan, Seconded by Tara McIntosh
Passed
 

Highlights and Lowlights � Specifically August 14^th Outage:

Imperial Oil:

Highlights

Janet Maaten spoke to recent highlights which included Imperial Oil�s rapid response to the power outages. In recent months frequent outages have made IOL employees experts in response. Some improvements to communications with the city have be made. Muncipal ( industry) liaisons were dispatched to command centres promptly. Some backup generating systems in place by August 14^th in response to the previous outages. Site Enviro Report distributed to 10,000 community members.

Lowlights

Oil sheens to river in May and October. CVECO Code 8�s called. Leak in tank in June resulting in Odours. Bayer exposure in September. Safety performance at the plant to be greatly improved. Injury to plant workers and contactors increased this year.

TransAlta:

Highlights � Facility has gone six weeks without outages at the site. The outages which effected TransAlta had little to no offsite impact.

Lowlights - Bill noted that mechanical infrastructure damage was done to the facility during the April and August outages.

Shell:

Highlights

Peter St.George is presently participating in the International Shell Refinery Managers Meeting in Amsterdam. He will also be a member of the Global Refinery Excellence Refining Team and as a result will be travelling to exotic locales world wide to participate. The interim plant manager will be Kerry Margetts. A new flare system was commissioned in June and is working very well in producing very little smoke. No steam plant loss for August 14^th outage due to adequate backup generators. As a result Shell was able to fuel emergency vehicles during the outage. A shutdown will be taking place starting October 27^th. Shell will be adopting new social performance guidelines that will be implemented in 2004. A group will be set up to look at issues and concerns. The community will review their performance initiatives annually.

Lowlights

Heather mentioned that they have similar experiences this year with respect to safety and injury issues for employees and contractors. They plan to re-energize programs to improve worker/contractor attitudes concerning safety issues.

Nova:

Highlights

Employees from Front Street location were safely integrated into the various plant sites. No recordable injuries at Nova during the recent shutdown.

Lowlights

Martin also noted higher recordables this year. This may also be due to higher pressure from management on employee performance. Business is not the greatest � while product prices have remained the same during the past 15 years, wages and other expenditures increase. The largest lowlight for Nova is the departure of Martin Bruce from the Mooretown Site. He will be sorely missed.

Discussions ensued concerning the topic of safety. It was surmised that several factors may be contributing to this increase in reportables including a more transient work force, younger inexperienced workforce, attitude, inadequate training, lack of accountability, etc. Other factors may well include the aging workforce resulting in strain injuries as well as more reporting requirements than in the past. Many plants have Safety meetings every morning. Particularly during shut downs. Audit training is in place for that reason as well. Sarnia plants still vast improvement over all with respect to �lost time� injury or fatalities.

Tom inquired about the OHCOW Air Quality Forum and Royal Polymers issues. Several individual groups are popping up at the onset of various incidents. It was acknowledged that there is a need for a solitary community organization (possibly in association with SLEA) to better communicate or disseminate information to the public as the media is not knowledgable on more scientific issues. Who has a list of all community groups that are out there? Possibly Chamber of Commerce or City Hall should be in possession of this information.

Carolyn noted that communications to the general public should be relayed in as clear language as possible without the use of acronyms.

Public awareness should be increased through the use of kiosk displays at local fairs and malls. Individual industry member companies can do this on their own accord.

Heather and I encourage the group to start thinking of issues to be addressed in 2004. We will update the list and distribute accordingly.

A NFPRER representative from Ottawa will be making a presentation at our next meeting.

Next meeting to take place November 20^th, at 5:00pm to be held at the Village Inn, Point Edward.

Tara McIntosh.